Today is the third anniversary of the first lockdown, a day of infamy that, I hope, will go down in history as a mistake never to be repeated. But we cannot take that for granted, which is why I’m taking this opportunity to ask you to make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Regular readers won’t need me to point out that the risk of another lockdown is still with us. We now know that the threat posed by SARS-CoV-2, particularly to healthy people under the age of 65, was wildly exaggerated, while the costs of the various interventions designed to ameliorate it were far higher than anticipated. Yet while this might be bleedin’ obvious to us, the wider public appears to believe not only that locking us in our homes was the correct response to the outbreak of a fairly mild respiratory virus three years ago, but that the Government should have been even stricter. According to a recent YouGov poll, 37% of the public think the Government’s infection-control measures weren‘t strict enough, compared to just 19% who thought they were too strict.
Even if we don’t think the risk of the Government locking us down again in response to another surge in COVID-19 case is particularly high, how is the political class likely to react if we’re faced with another pandemic – H1N5 jumping the species barrier, for instance? Optimists believe the public inquiry will conclude that indiscriminately quarantining the entire population was a mistake, given the catastrophic costs to our health, economy and well-being, but it’s unlikely to pronounce its verdict for seven years. You can bet your bottom dollar the Government will come under pressure to place us all under house arrest again in the interim, even it it’s only to avert a ‘climate emergency’. So we need to keep making the case that such a grotesque interference in our liberty in the name of keeping us ‘safe’ is completely unacceptable.
I wouldn’t be asking you to make a donation if it wasn’t needed. But regrettably we’ve had to shelve our plans to finance the site via advertising thanks to the unrelenting attacks on the Daily Sceptic by various ‘fact checking’ bodies, as well as the myriad shadowy agencies and private companies in the ‘disinfo’ sector that comprise what Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi have dubbed the ‘Censorship-Industrial Complex’.
One agency in particular – NewsGuard, part-funded by Microsoft and part-funded by the U.S. Defence Department – has successfully ‘disrupted’ our attempt to attract advertising. At the top of its page about the Daily Sceptic it says: “Proceed with maximum caution: This website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalist standards.”
Here’s what I wrote about my run-in with NewsGuard last December:
An organisation called NewsGuard, which ranks websites according to how ‘safe’ they are for companies to advertise on (among other things), decided to downgrade the Daily Sceptic on the grounds that we frequently publish ‘misinformation’ about the Covid vaccines and climate change. I was sent a long email by an employee of the company, listing all the articles on the site that had been red-flagged by supposedly impartial ‘fact checking’ organisations – as well as NewsGuard’s own employees – and inviting me to mount a defence. Knowing how damaging a poor NewsGuard rating can be to a site’s ability to attract advertising – and this coincided with our decision to start selling ads on the site – I sent back a lengthy response in good faith, rebutting each of the fact-checks in turn, but saying I would link to them beneath the articles in question (as well as to our rebuttals). I duly spent a couple of days sticking ‘postscripts’ beneath the articles, as well as below some additional pieces NewsGuard hadn’t mentioned but which had also fallen foul of fact-checkers – and I let NewsGuard know about that, thinking it would be pleased. After all, I thought, it would be able to tell its big clients – which include Microsoft – how it had prompted a website that publishes ‘misinformation’ to include links to dozens of fact-checking websites.
Instead, NewsGuard wrote back to tell me it had downgraded the Daily Sceptic to 37.5 out of 100, about half the points it had before. The reason was because I hadn’t said beneath the articles that the content that had been identified by the fact-checkers as false was in fact false. My defence is that in every case the fact-checkers hadn’t red-flagged the articles in question because they contained factually inaccurate information; rather, they just disagreed with our interpretation of the data. But – as is common among fact-checkers, who are invariably Left-of-centre – they pretended none of this was up for debate and labelled our interpretation as ‘misinformation’. I explained all this to my NewsGuard correspondent, but it didn’t cut any ice, presumably because he shares the same ideological biases as the fact-checkers. …
The American Institute of Economic Research, which published the Great Barrington Declaration, has had its own difficulties with NewsGuard, which Phil Magness, Director of Research and Education at AIER, labels a “propaganda entity”. Magness’s piece on NewsGuard and how it operates is well worth your time.
Another thing that makes it hard to run the Daily Sceptic as a commercial business is that Facebook keep suspending my personal Facebook account, as well as the website’s account, for supposedly violating its ‘standards’. We were banned for 30 days in December and, after briefly being allowed to post again, we were banned again, this time for longer. The accounts were restored a couple of weeks ago, but a warning note made clear that if we continue to publish ‘misleading’ claims about the lockdowns, the mRNA vaccines and climate change, we will be permanently banned. It then helpfully linked to the suspect articles that had led to our previous bans and at the top of the list was a piece by Gus Dalgleish – or, to give him his full title, Angus George Dalgleish FRCP FRCPath FMedSci, a professor of oncology at St George’s, University of London. Does Facebook really believe an ‘independent fact-checker’ with a degree in Media Studies from the University of Hicksville knows more about how the mRNA vaccines affect someone’s vulnerability to cancer than Professor Dalgleish? Nevertheless, this was branded a “post that goes against our standards on misinformation about vaccines”.
Yet in spite of all these obstacles thrown in our way, the Daily Sceptic continues to attract a huge global audience. In January, we got 2,401,131 page views, a new record. We’ve also launched a podcast with Nick Dixon – the Weekly Sceptic – and the last episode was downloaded more than 15,000 times. On May 20th, we’ve organised our first live recording of the podcast at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster – more on that soon. Yet as with the Daily Sceptic, it’s proving difficult to attract advertising on the podcast, meaning it’s a money loser for us. The only thing keeping the bailiffs from the door – of my garden shed, that is, we don’t have anything as grand as an office – are the generous donations of readers.
So, if you continue to enjoy our work, please think about making a donation to mark the third anniversary of the first lockdown. Will Jones, Nick Dixon, Ian Rons, Noah Carl, Chris Morrison and the rest of the team devote a huge amount of time to bringing you a high-quality product – no, NewsGuard, we don’t violate basic journalistic standards – and the only way we can continue doing that is with the support of our readers. Remember, you only have to donate £5 a month to be able to comment (or £50 to comment for a year). You can donate by clicking here.
A big thank you to all those people who have donated already in 2023. It’s hugely appreciated.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Well done Toby. This site saved many a person’s sanity. I do contribute monthly. 2.4 million page views – if 10% contributed…..I am glad you are starting to red pill but the Rona fascism was not a ‘cock up’ Toby, but imo a 10 year plan. Patents, coordination, table top exercises, the propaganda, even the stabs, the bribes, the payouts – all ready and prepared.
I would guess the YouGov poll is apocryphal. In the real world, more than 50% of the people I know will never participate in anything similar to the Rona Fascism. The fox was in the henhouse and was chased away. They will try it again.
WHO Pandemic treaty, the EU totalitarianism, xi Biden and the unhinged anti-Christian un-Democrats, the illimitable number of ‘agencies’, ‘ministers’ and ‘health this and that’, not to mention Criminal Pharma and Kill Gates and the useless Churches etc. They will try it again, so your article is correct as a warning.
I will never forget that people wanted me – the unstabbed – either forcibly jagginated or sent to a camp. Who are the real Nazis Lineker?
I agree. This whole saga was not a cock-up. The Barrington declaration along with many other scientists were dismissed. When there is a crisis, you need to take on board varied views to be considered. This didn’t happen. The Lockdown Sceptic was a brilliant way of waking people up. Thank you Tony for that. It helped me maintain some sort of sanity during these strange times. I have contributed to Daily Sceptic. I will again.
The Daily Sceptic needs to keep going.
Everything about the ‘fact check brigade’ screams out to anyone who puts any value on liberty that the Daily Sceptic needs to keep going.
Always wondered this but now it’s confirmed, if the site has a ”huge global audience” then why is it 99.99% British people commenting? I can count on one hand the foreigners, or people who’ve shared that they aren’t British anyway. Just thought that was a peculiarity…
Anyway, I’m sure that those of us who pay to comment can at least all agree on the fact that this site has been a Godsend, even if we do grumble about content and whatnot from time to time, as is human nature I s’pose. It’s a shame that many were lost when the place had a re-jig and went ‘pay to comment’ but I can see how that was inevitable if you want the site to keep on going and being a valuable source of info and a hub for sceptics to discuss and share news over the long-term. And long may it continue. Keep up the great work, both DS team and active commenters/contributors.
I think people tend to be more cautious about subscribing to foreign publications. I subscribe to Daily Wire as well, but we’re living through a culture war where subscriptions to foreign publications can get you put on a ‘threat’ list, depending on how the political winds blow. The Daily Sceptic is tolerated because of Toby’s links with the Tory Party, but does anyone think things won’t get frighteningly censorious under a Labour government that seems sure to emulate the totalitarian tendencies of the EU.
The Tories seem happy to keep Labour-implemented oppression going when they take office. Remember when they were supposed to be launching a great repeal bill that would strip out Labour’s far left infrastructure? Almost a decade and a half later, there’s still no sign of it and the EU’s Digital Services Act looks set to be emulated everywhere.
There’s going to have to be an ‘Internet 2.0’ sooner or later.
I too am immensely grateful that this site was there to question – unlike the MSM who just parroted propaganda. At least we could know that we weren’t the only ones who felt this way even while everybody else was running around like a headless chicken.
Keep on keeping on.
If you regularly read The Daily Sceptic you have a duty to make a contribution.
Nothing is free; someone always pays.
Do you want to pay with another round of lockdowns in the future, and all the “collateral damage” they cause?
If not, support those who are fighting to ensure it can never happen again.
£5 a month means one less bottle of plonk a month. Or two takeaway coffees A MONTH.
You CAN afford it.
Hear hear. To all those folks whose contribution below the line here I loved and who didn’t comment again after Toby came calling for help – COUGH UP YOU MISERABLE BUGGERS, WE NEED YOU HERE!
Seconded Marcus.
Well said. No need to beat about the bush. How many reading DS once bought a daily newspaper but have dropped that rubbish?
Seven days a week for £1.25 per week. It’s a no brainer surely.
Well said.
Toby, we are all going to keep being a collective pain in the arse for the “fact checkers”.
Thank you all at DS for keeping us all sane.
That YouGov poll is truly distressing….I just can’t believe it. I volunteer in a community shop in my village. One of the volunteers WhatsAapp’ed our group and said that she can’t work today because she’s tested positive for Covid. Eh? Didn’t we all stop doing that years ago??? Beyond anger at how our government have scared half the population witless. Keep going Toby – you must keep the torch burning for our freedoms…hard won, and easily lost if we don’t have folk like you fighting the good fight!
Torture induced PTSD courtesy of the military grade state sanctioned psych ops is what the poor woman is suffering from. Facts won’t help her as she’s mentally unwell & trapped within a cult. We have to remember that. Little reminders of positive things to do to keep one healthy like fresh air, sunshine, cutting out crap processed foods, supplements of VitD3+K2, zinc & quercetin or black seed oil tend to go down better as it’s something which they can do rather than a challenge to a belief system.
YouGov poll participants are self selecting & more likely to be the compliant plus the questions are loaded & biased, which basically negates the result as it’s been predetermined before being rolled out.
I actually had this yougov poll to fill in. Obviously I said that the whole thing was a load of old pony but at some point in the thing it said ‘200,000 people lost their lives to covid’ so at the end when it asked for any other comments I told them that that statement was a lie.
I hope the reality is that people have woken up a little even if they were very pro before…I don’t know many people now who have had all the gene therapies before, who will ever get another…and let’s hope next time they think..once bitten?
I live near to a very popular tourist town, and people seem to be completely back to normal…it was the same last year…fingers crossed….
As someone who has retired, and has got the time to comment, I know that not everyone has….I read but didn’t comment for a very long time….but the ones who were commenting were my lifeline, to similar opinions and tons of data I could have never found on my own…. so thank you to all, past and present….
I paid for a year this time but will be sending a small donation to help anyway…the ‘fact-checking’ business is out of control, and honestly who thinks these people care about actual facts? They are paid by the pharmaceutical companies and by Governments, they wouldn’t do it otherwise,…. and if anyone believes they do it out of the goodness of their hearts…oh dear….!!
What is sad is that there doesn’t seem to be enough businesses out there fighting back….in my opinion they don’t cover themselves in glory cowering to the virtue signallers…..
So keep going Toby and gang….you have a little army behind you, and sometimes that’s all it takes…..
A lovely comment ebg.
And thanks again for all your excellent links. Great work.
Toby
I am happy to continue contributing to the Daily Sceptic however there are so many other equally worthy online publications such as Spiked and TCW who could also benefit from my generosity.
i am sure there must be a business model where you could combine your talents to create a new newspaper to rival the MSM.
Give it an emollient name that appeals to free thinkers such as ‘The Broad Church’.
Given the execrable coverage of the issues that genuinely affect us by the MSM, I am sure a new publication would fly off the shelves.
He has. This is it. It’s 17p per day (to comment).
There’s a certain advantage to a paper copy, but it’s a whole different ballgame, logistically…
We are already in the next lockdown, Net Zero.
Time to concentrate on the lies, the computer modelling, dishonest experts, international bodies, big business interests, rich and powerful, rule by edict and the final touches to our social and economic ruin.
Happy to support the DS in its quest to keep people informed. However, Toby, you really need to wise up over the vaccines and ditch the “cock-up” theory which is akin to letting this tyrannical system off the hook on the grounds of incompetence.
Agreed. Grabbing hold of an opportunity isn’t a cock-up, after all. It certainly looks like an opportunity for the pharmaceutical trade.
We in the UK are supposed to like being World Leaders of this or that so I suggest that TPTB decided we were to be the World Leader in the “cock up” department and all the other countries aped our example and “cocked up” in turn and in tandem. That should explain it.
Thank you for all you do and I am very pleased to donate again.
I’ll look at upping my monthly contribution in the new financial year. I was in complete despair before Lockdown Sceptics turned up.
YouGov? You’re kidding me. (YouGov: 8 out of 10 UniParty World Government Numpties Prefer It.)
Although alarming if true I simply don’t believe it. I don’t believe it’s a legitimate poll. More like creative fiction..
Yes, YouGov, what a joke… I also don’t believe it’s a legitimate poll.
Toby, Will, Nick et al, essential that your thorough and free-thinking journalism (+entertainment) continues. It takes time but truth will out.
Thanks Toby, Will, Nick, Ian, Noah, Chris and the others. I really do appreciate the work you all collectively put in to maintain this oasis of free-thinking sanity in an increasingly totalitarian, dystopian landscape.
And I don’t take for granted the sacrifices, in time, wealth and reputation that this site has cost. Well done, and most appreciated.
And I am starting to see the tide shifting (not turning … yet). I managed to convince several friends to attend the ULEZ demonstration in London – friends who were Lockdown cheerleaders, but are now grasping the wider implications of grotesque governmental overreach.
I might not have been so assured of my convictions if it wasn’t for almost 3 years of readership (is it April 8th or thereabouts, your three year anniversary, Toby?).
Cheers
Signed! Keep up the great work.
Thanks for being a shining light
We go out with Yellow Boards three times a week.
Despite the what the polls say the response has improved continuously over the past year.
At some points on Wednesday morning in Maidenhead it was almost continuous beeping.
Friday 24th March 11am to 12pm
Yellow Freedom Boards
Junction Sopwith Rd &
Harvest Ride Warfield
Bracknell RG42 4SS
Noseguard: maskers of truth.
You and your team do great work, Toby, and I really appreciate it. Keep it up!
Really?
An article by Gus Dalgleish was at the top of the list of NewsGuard’s ‘suspect articles’ published on The Daily Sceptic?
Toby, are you referring to this article? As an oncologist I am seeing people with stable cancer rapidly progress after being forced to have a booster, 26 November 2022?
This article is actually based on an email Gus Dalgleish sent in response to me and Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of The BMJ, and others, re my email challenging Kamran Abbasi to acknowledge the massive ethical problem of people being Covid jabbed under mandates, which has been rife in Australia.
As I wrote in my email to Kamran Abbasi, “‘valid informed consent’ appears to have been sacrificed during the grossly disproportionate and ill-targeted Covid debacle”.
Gus Dalgleish started his email response to me and Abbasi with the sentence “I write in total support of Elizabeth Hart”, but this was edited out when his email was published on The Daily Sceptic, along with acknowledging concerns about the destruction of ‘voluntary informed consent’.
Personal autonomy and bodily integrity have been wrecked by Covid jab mandates in Australia, it’s incredible that these coercive medical interventions have been carried out by health practitioners who have forsaken their legal and ethical duty to obtain voluntary informed consent before a medical intervention.
It’s also incredible that self-designated gatekeepers such as NewsGuard are preventing frank and open discussion on the disastrous global Covid response.
How do we crack this scandal open and bring the perpetrators to account?
Perhaps you should stop publishing poll results unless the medical and epidemiological qualifications of those polled have been fact-checked. Or at least remind those who rely on such polls when developing strategies that they are being unscientific.
Reading the Daily Sceptic is a part of my morning routine at this point. It would be rude not to contribute. Keep going guys! Many people rely on you for their sanity
Probably a good time for Toby & Will to stop calling sceptical, critical thinking, question everything people Conspiracy Theorists!!!
Well said Toby and I will contribute.
However, I listened to your argument with James on last week’s podcast and you are blind to the bigger picture. Even in this article you presume that Newsguard and the fact-checkers are independent whereas they are in fact one and the same – you’ve fallen for the trick. Please read and think about any of Iain Davis’s output on this gradual global public private partnership ensnarement and control. You’re being trapped in the spider’s web and you can’t see it.
Fortunately your information is supported by much better data than the gross mis/disinformation regularly repeated by government and in the MSM.
As a child I was taught to read,, but much more importantly to think.
As a doctor I was taught to consider all the available evidence and to use my knowledge and intelligence to practise medicine for the benefit of my patients according to the principle of ‘primum non nocere’.
My long life has taught me to follow my conscience and my gut instinct.
Thank you for continuing my education and maintaining my sanity while all around others were, and still are, consumed by the madness.
You are doing a great job!
If, like me, you were wondering how to increase a monthly credit card donation – the answer is here:
https://donorbox.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020560251
Like many other commenters, I emigrated to the Reddit site two years ago, (which now has 1,400 members) but the Daily Sceptic is still my daily pre-breakfast reading. TY’s tenacity is admirable.
same here this is my daily before breakfast reading thank you toby and all
Many Independent News sources are under attack with governments trying to shut down funding by preventing them using distribution like Facebook and Google, Canada’s Trudeau for one. You are fighting an enormous power the Biosecuriry State hugely funded by Western Governments. Our government security agencies have become the enemy, scary stuff. I have always contributed but this onslaught to prevent your growth and reach will continue. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Attended a meeting yesterday and realised that the majority of people still have no idea that they were lied to from the start to present day. They do not know about the protests all over the country and the world against vax mandates they are completely unaware of the Canadian truckers protest or of the censorship by the government of sensible voices trying to warn about possible vax harms.
They do not understand that ordinary people were out on the streets protesting to protect basic human liberties like bodily autonomy.
They still think the vax protected them – “praise be to the vax”.
They think digital money is a great idea.
They still believe that masks are good and standing 6 feet from another person is safe. They choose not to make any connections whatsoever to excess deaths and the jabs or to even contemplate that midazolam killed tens of thousands of people.
They have already moved on and they do not see the simmering hatred, resentment, anger and frustration that millions of people still harbour.
Without face to face conversations about what actually happened and bringing people onto the same page I fear the anxiety levels will only increase.
thank you toby l. s. has been a total life saver for me and all of us. think found out about it through the daily mail about October 2020 after having been suffering among the brainwashed all round me here in the usa [unfortunately am not in the free state of florida ].. and love the writing , articles and comments
Check out this Carnegie Mellon University presentation on anti-vax messaging Toby – The Daily Sceptic features in it quite heavily – well done!
Way past time to turn the tables on the wretched university/research sector, which has sought to silence debate, and to support the exploitation of billions of people with unnecessary and potentially harmful Covid jabs.
Oh look, the Carnegie Mellon University has benefited from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding in the past, e.g. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Builds Carnegie Mellon’s Home for Computer Science donating $20 million in 2007.
More recently, in November 2019, BMGF has funded Carnegie Mellon “To help improve the security and privacy features of an open source digital identity platform that is needed to drive many development outcomes such as financial inclusion, poverty alleviation and government delivery of services to citizens”.
This is classified as ‘financial services for the poor’…
Digital ID…
Seriously, NEVER AGAIN!